The Secret Garden (Illustrated Edition)

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Overview

The Secret Garden is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published as a book in 1911, after some version was published as an American magazine serial beginning in 1910. Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and is considered a classic of English children's literature. Several stage and film adaptations have been made.

At the turn of the 20th century, Mary Lennox is a sickly and unloved 10-year-old girl, born in India to wealthy British parents who never wanted her. She is cared for by servants, who allow her to become a spoiled, aggressive and selfish child. Through the discovery of her aunt's secret garden, her brother, and a cousin, Mary becomes a child we would all like to have as part of our household.

The Secret Garden has become an important part of children's literature: in 2003, it ranked number 51 in "The Big Read," a survey of the British public by the BBC to identify the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" among all genres. Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association named it one of "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". In 2012 it was ranked number 15 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal.

This edition of the book contains the four original illustrations, rejuvenated, and six additional nature illustrations unique to this edition of the book.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940157452827
Publisher:	New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers,
Publication date:	04/29/2017
Series:	Classic Books for Children , #140
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	282
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885–1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

Hodgson was born in Cheetham, Manchester, England. After her father died in 1852, the family fell on tough times and in 1865 emigrated to the United States, settling near Knoxville, Tennessee. Frances began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines from the age of 19. In 1870, her mother died, and in 1872 Frances married Swan Burnett, who became a medical doctor. The Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their two sons were born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C., Burnett then began to write novels, the first of which (That Lass o' Lowrie's), was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.

Burnett enjoyed socializing and lived a lavish lifestyle. Beginning in the 1880s, she began to travel to England frequently and in the 1890s bought a home there, where she wrote The Secret Garden. She divorced Swan Burnett in 1898, married Stephen Townsend in 1900, and divorced him in 1902. A few years later she settled in Nassau County, Long Island, where she died in 1924 and is buried in Roslyn Cemetery.